


Going Off Script

by one_last_surprise



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Avengers, Fluff, Happy Tony Stark, I love picturing these two hanging out and having fun, Other, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Precious Peter Parker, Sassy Peter Parker, Sleepy Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24695161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_last_surprise/pseuds/one_last_surprise
Summary: "I’m not sure your PSA is going to live up to the originals,” Peter said, kicking his feet up and leaning back on the sofa.“I guarantee that our video is going to outshine whatever crap Rogers made,” Tony said, testing out the nanotech on his arm as Peter messed with the settings on his camera.“I dunno,” Peter challenged, taking a photo of Tony. “Sequels are usually worse than the originals.”“Tell that to my suits, kid,” Tony said.Or: It's time to make the PSA video Tony promised.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 19
Kudos: 173





	Going Off Script

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This can be read as a follow up to a story I published a few weeks ago or on its own! If you haven't read it yet, [Under One Condition](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442039) provides a little context and sets the stage for this one. I hope you enjoy :)

“Today’s the day, Mr. Stark!” Peter exclaimed as he burst through the lab doors. 

Tony glanced up from a nanotech prototype he was working on as Hurricane Peter made its way toward him. 

“Sorry, Pete. Script’s not quite finished,” Tony said, returning to his work. He saw Peter freeze with his hand on a camera he was pulling out of his backpack. Tony had offered to use FRIDAY and his own camera equipment for the video, but Peter insisted on doing it “old-school.” Tony wasn’t sure that using a digital camera could be considered old-school, but he went with it.

“What did you just say?” Peter asked, his voice stilted. Tony schooled his face into a serious expression and met the kid’s gaze. 

“We can’t film it today because the script,” Tony paused, “is not finished.”

Peter groaned, throwing his hands in the air and shaking them as if Tony was a petulant child that refused to listen. Tony turned back to his work and avoided looking at Peter. He wouldn’t be able to keep up the act for much longer.

“You’ve been working on the script for two weeks now! How much longer could you possibly need?” Peter asked, running a hand through his hair. 

“Calm down, Spielberg,” Tony said, fiddling with a wire on the nanotech housing unit. “It’ll be done in a couple days.”

“A couple days? Then we’ll have to wait an _entire_ week before I’m back here!” Peter sighed, sinking into the couch across from Tony’s workstation. 

“Well, I was thinking you could stay the night and we can shoot the video before you leave tomorrow,” Tony said, glancing at Peter as he revealed the news.

“What?” Peter blinked. 

“You’ve already got a room here. Might as well get some use out of it,” Tony said. He watched as a flurry of emotions stormed across Peter’s face. Confusion, excitement, shock. It was a good thing he wore a mask as Spider-Man, or villains would be able to read him like a book.

“No way! A superhero sleepover. Really?” Peter’s eyes grew as wide as arc reactors. 

“As long as you _never_ call it that again,” Tony smirked. He watched as Peter struggled to hold in a giddy smile. 

“Thank you, Mr. Stark! I mean, I’ll have to ask May. But I’m sure she’ll say yes. As long as we promise no explosions. There’s no explosions in your script, right?” Peter said, the words tumbling over themselves as he spoke. 

“Pepper made me clear it with your aunt first, so you’re all set,” Tony said, and the glee on Peter’s face forced a smile onto his own. 

“Cool,” Peter sat back down, nodding to himself. “It’s not because I was bothering you about the video, right? Because you really don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not because you’re annoying me, Pete. It’s because I thought it would be fun,” Tony replied. Although Peter had grown more comfortable around him over the past few months, hints of the eager-to-please teenager still surfaced every now and then. 

“Good. But I’m not sure your PSA is going to live up to the originals,” Peter said, kicking his feet up and leaning back on the sofa. 

“I guarantee that our video is going to outshine whatever crap Rogers made,” Tony said, testing out the nanotech on his arm as Peter messed with the settings on his camera. 

“I dunno,” Peter challenged, taking a photo of Tony. “Sequels are usually worse than the originals.”

“Tell that to my suits, kid,” Tony said.

— + — + — + —

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Peter said, pointing to the paper in front of him as he read on the couch.

“Hmmm?” Tony muttered from where he was flipping through plans for a new Stark Industries warehouse.

“Why the hell does this say ‘Enter Spider-Man’?” Peter turned to Tony, his brow furrowed.

“Because that is the part of the video where Spider-Man enters,” Tony said without looking up. 

“The deal was for you to make a PSA video!”

“The deal was for me to make a PSA video provided that _I_ got to write the script,” Tony countered. Peter sat silent for a moment, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He looked slightly crazed, and Tony figured it must be past midnight. While Tony had been fine-tuning the script, Peter tested new suit materials. There was still a smudge of soot on his forehead from when one of them had turned out to _not_ be flame retardant (luckily, DUM-E had been on top of the flames before anything else caught fire), and his hair was flopping over his eyes and sticking out by his ears.

“But...you can’t just...” Peter stammered. 

“Oh, I think I can, Spider-ling. Business 101: there’s always a loophole,” Tony said as a bubble of laughter began building in his chest. Peter looked more shocked than he had when Tony had first shown him the Iron Spider suit and offered to make him an Avenger. 

“I—They’ll recognize my voice!” Peter finally sputtered. 

“That’s what the voice modulators in your suit are for. C’mon, Pete, did you ever finish the Training Wheels Protocol?” Tony asked. 

“But—” 

“Sorry, kid. You pulled me into this and I’m dragging you with me. Now suit up. We’ve got a PSA to shoot,” Tony stood and began clearing a space for them to film. 

“Now wait just a minute!” Peter cried, rushing over and standing in front of him, the script clutched in his hand. 

“Now you want me to wait? You’ve been begging to film for the past two weeks!” Tony raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. “Did you even read your lines? Or did you just see your name and flip out?”

Peter scanned the page quickly, his eyes darting from side to side as he took in the information. 

“So, you got detention. Look on the bright side—you’re not stuck in a cave in the middle of the desert. But while you’re here, I’d like to give you some advice. You all know me, Tony Stark. Iron Man. Genius. The list goes on,” Peter read aloud. He looked up at Tony incredulously. “Really, Mr. Stark? This is how you want to start the video?”

Tony nodded. “Yes. But those are my lines. Find your own. Keep reading.”

As Peter skimmed the rest of the page, Tony caught a smile twitching on the corner of his lips. 

“I guess it’s not so bad,” Peter muttered as he finished. 

“Think I have a future in scriptwriting?” Tony asked. “Although my father spent some time in Hollywood, and I’m not sure I want to have another thing in common with him.”

“Yeah, you should probably stick with the hero gig. I don’t think a fake PSA video makes a great resume,” Peter replied.

“Hey! I’ve done plenty of speeches for press conferences.”

“Don’t act like you write those. It’s definitely Miss Potts,” Peter said pointedly.

“Okay, intern. Get the set ready. I’m going to put on a suit,” Tony said. For the record, he’d gotten much better at giving speeches that were at least remotely tied to a script. But improv was more his style.

“An Iron Man suit,” Peter clarified. “If I gotta be dressed as Spider-Man, you need to be armored up, too.”

“Whatever you say, Underoos,” Tony chuckled, walking away. It was time for a show.

— + — + — + —

It was the sixth time Tony had gone off script, and he could practically see the steam coming out of Peter’s ears.

“Just one more, Pete,” Tony promised. 

“What was the point of writing a script if you say something different every time?” Peter huffed, holding his mask in his hands. Despite the tone of his voice, Tony knew Peter was having a good time. He’d collapsed into laughter as many times as Tony had changed the script. Needless to say, the blooper reel would be ten times longer than the actual PSA video.

“Rewrites are part of the process. Besides, what’s the point of making this video if you’re only able to show it to two people?” Tony responded, stretching as he walked over to his mark. 

“Um, it's five actually,” Peter said hesitantly, the cloud of anger dissipating just as quickly as it had been created. 

“Did my ears deceive me or did you just say that five people are going to see this? You promised only Rhodey and Ned,” Tony glared at Peter. 

“ _Welllll_ ,” Peter drew the word out, “I might have mentioned it to May and Happy. And then Happy told Miss Potts, so that one’s not really my fault. Plus they’re like family, right? So it hardly counts. I mean, they could watch it live if they wanted to.”

Tony shook his head and narrowed his eyes at Peter, but it was pointless. The kid could put the video up on a billboard in Times Square and Tony still wouldn’t be mad at him. 

“Okay, but that’s it. Hap, Rhodey, Pepper, May, and Ned,” Tony said. Peter nodded his head vigorously.

“Yeah. Pinky swear,” Peter held up his hand as a goofy smile filled his face. Tony rolled his eyes.

“Alright, FRI. We’re ready,” Tony said.

“12:48 am. Project _Take notes, Steve. This is how it’s done_. Scene 1. Take 7. Action,” FRIDAY called out.

“So, you got detention,” Tony began, walking over to the lone folding chair sitting in front of the camera. “What I’ve learned in my time as both Tony Stark-genius, and Iron Man-superhero, is that sometimes it’s good to defy authority. And sometimes, it’s not. Take it from my pal, Spider-boy. I’m sorry, Spider-Man. See he’s short, so I sometimes mix it up.”

Peter front-flipped into the frame, landed perfectly next to Tony, and gave a small wave. He stood as straight as possible in a vain attempt to look taller that he was. 

Tony continued: “But we’re not here to talk about our vertically challenged friendly neighborhood hero. We’re here to talk about me. Or rather what you can learn from me. He’s just a nice example of what you can achieve if you listen to my advice.”

“Now hold on a second, Iron Man,” Peter interrupted, his voice a bit too loud and the words a bit too forced to sound natural. 

“What? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?” Tony gestured to the camera and rolled his eyes. 

“I think I have some advice to offer as well. See, if it weren’t for _me_ , Mr. Brilliant over here would have lost a billion dollars worth of tech and projects to a bad guy,” Peter grinned under his suit. It had taken seven tries, but he finally managed to get the lines out without bursting into laughter at the sound of his deepened voice. 

“True. But what about the time you almost sunk a ferry? And then _I_ had to come to your rescue,” Tony countered. 

“Well I had been…handling it. Maybe if you actually communicated with your mentee, that incident wouldn’t have happened,” Peter pointed out. 

“The point is,” Tony said, with a sharp glance at Peter, “There are times to disobey authority. And there are times when you do what you mentor tells you to. Or teacher, whatever. The fact is, if you got detention, you clearly made the wrong choice. So—” 

Before he could say another word, Peter leapt in front of him, shot a web over his mouth, and took center stage.  
“But remember that they don’t hold all the power,” Peter interjected, and Tony could practically hear the smile in his voice, despite the mask and modulator. “They may be the ones making the rules. But that means _you_ get to break them. When you do, they’ll be the ones scrambling. And, like my mentor taught me, there’s always a loophole. Find the right one, and you won’t get caught.”

In a single motion, Peter shot a web to the ceiling and hoisted himself up until he was out of frame. Tony tracked his movements with his eyes and then stared directly into the camera, shrugging his shoulders.

“And that’s a wrap,” FRIDAY said. Instantly, Peter was back on the ground in front of Tony with dissolve fluid for the web. He passed it to Tony and turned off the camera.

“Oh my gosh, Mr. Stark. I can’t believe we finally got it! And I actually got the timing perfect on the web! I can’t believe you actually wanted me to do that!” Peter gushed, pulling off his mask as Tony worked on freeing his own mouth.

“Are you satisfied, now? The things I do for you,” Tony grumbled as he fought back a grin. He seemed to be doing that a lot, lately.

“You’re not mad, right? I mean you went off script, _again_ , and I tried to—” Peter said as he pulled on a T-shirt and sweatpants.

“No, Pete, you did great,” Tony said. It was kind of endearing to see how concerned the kid was about upsetting him. 

“Okay, yeah. Thanks!” Peter said, yawning.

“You tired already?” Tony asked.

“Working with you is exhausting,” Peter said, pretending to wipe sweat off his forehead.

“So you’re too tired to watch _Star Wars_?” Tony asked, raising his eyebrows.

“What? No! But don’t you want to see our masterpiece?” Peter replied.

“Hell no. I want you to edit it and make me look good before I watch it,” Tony said, heading over to the kitchenette to make a cup of coffee.

“You’re giving me control over the editing?”

“Don’t make me regret it,” Tony said.

Peter let out a laugh worthy of a Disney villain, “Too late. I’ll get the popcorn ready.” He bounded out the door and up the stairs before Tony could say another word. He smiled to himself as he poured a mug of coffee.

By the time Tony changed out of his suit and made it to the common space that had become designated for movie nights, Peter had prepped the room. A huge bowl of popcorn rested in the center of the coffee table, and several throw blankets lay scattered on the couch. _Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back_ was pulled up on the TV, and Peter was curled up on one edge of the couch, stifling another yawn.

“Pete, if you’re tired you can go to bed. We’ve got a big movie premiere tomorrow. I heard an entire five people are going to be there,” Tony greeted him.

“No, I’m good,” Peter said, sitting up straighter.

“Okay,” Tony said, settling down next to him on the couch. Peter hit play, and the movie began. Tony wasn’t particularly fond of the space battles, but he’d become a fan of watching Peter’s eyes light up and mouth move in sync with actors’ lines as the movie played. Tonight, however, he seemed to be more focused on keeping his eyes open than on the screen. 

Twenty minutes into the movie, Tony glanced over at Peter, who had slouched against the armrest. His head rested on one arm, and his legs were curled up to his chest as tightly as possible. He snored slightly, and Tony felt his heart melt at how peaceful he looked. He snapped a quick picture (you never know when you’ll need blackmail) before picking Peter up. He stirred slightly, but didn’t open his eyes. 

“Shhh, just taking you to bed, Spider-boy,” Tony whispered. He placed Peter on his bed and covered him with a Spider-Man blanket they’d found at Target one day. He was still curled up in a ball, and Tony wondered how the same kid that took down arms dealers and bank robbers could look so small and harmless. Tony adjusted the blanket, and Peter shifted.

“Mm-hm?” Peter slurred, squinting up at Tony.

“Goodnight, Pete,” Tony whispered as Peter closed his eyes again.

“‘Night,” Peter mumbled, already drifting off.

Tony paused in the doorway before heading to his own suite. If he had been writing the screenplay of his life, he never would have thought to put someone like Peter in it. But now that the kid was here, he couldn’t imagine a better rewrite.

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think? Let me know in the comments and/or leave a kudos. I love feedback!


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